[Editor's Note: The following article is wartime information
on enemy equipment published for Allied soldiers. More accurate data on
German weapons and equipment is available in postwar publications.]

GERMAN HEAVY TANK -- PzKw 6

This tank has already been described in Tactical and Technical Trends
(No. 20, p. 7). The accompanying
sketch of the tank is based on photographs of a PzKw 6 knocked out on the
Tunisian front.

The suspension system, which has
only very briefly been described in Tactical and Technical Trends, is shown in
the sketch below. The track is made of metal. To the far right in the sketch is
the front-drive sprocket and to the far left, the rear Idler. There are no
return rollers since the track rides on top of the Christie-type wheels, which are
rubber rimmed. It will be noted that there are eight axles, each with three
wheels to a side, or each with one single and one double wheel to a side. There
are thus 24 wheels, or 8 single wheels and 8 double wheels, on each side of the
tank. The system of overlapping is similar to the suspension system used on
German half-tracks.

The tank is provided with two tracks, a wide one (2 ft, 4.5 in) and a narrow
one (just under 2 ft). The wide track is the one used in battle, the narrow being
for administrative marches and where maneuverability and economy of operation
take precedence over ground pressure. The dotted line in the sketch of the
suspension system indicates the outer edge of the narrow track. When the
narrow track is used, the eight wheels outside the dotted line can be removed.